Ren of Heavens

Doesn't matter as long as they show up at E3. Last years Leipzig was pretty disappointing. I expect them to show off at least 1 big game we haven't heard about at E3. We know almost nothing about the latter half 2008/2009 line-up.

A successful MMO takes hundreds of skilled people and several years to make. They are extremely expensive. It can only be done by a big well-known third party developer or Nintendo themselves.

Star Wars: KOTOR I & II in a package. Burnout Revenge Psychonauts Orange Box (HL2+TF2+Portal) Virtua Tennis 3 OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast F.E.A.R. Ridge Racer 1/2 PSP

Sega is loosing a lot of money at the moment. Re-releasing some overlooked games is a lot cheaper and less risky than making whole new games. I'm the first to admit that Shenmue is not for everyone. But the Wii install base will soon reach 30 million, so even with only 1% interested they will have decent sales (300k+).

It's for PS3/X360: Ancel says the game - if it's ever approved by Ubisoft, that is - will be for the PS3 and 360. Move the thread to "Other Consoles"...

Come down... not a new game, but rumour about a re-release of the first two with waggle support: http://gonintendo.com/?p=43195

MadWorld is a Wii-exclusive game which is being directed by Shigenori Nishikawa, who worked previously on the likes of Resident Evil 4 and Time Crisis 2. (And Time Crisis 3, but he ruefully suggests that he'd prefer to forget about that particular incident.) According to Nishikawa, the idea behind MadWorld isn't to create something depraved or perverse - instead, he says, he wants to make a fun and exciting game which just happens to include gruesome violence. On first impressions, we'd say he's succeeded. MadWorld looks fun and exciting, certainly - but it's also the most hilariously over-the-top, ultra ultra violent videogame we've seen. Rendered entirely in black and white, in a style not dissimilar to Frank Miller's seminal Sin City graphic novels, MadWorld's stark urban environment is, essentially, filled with things that cause pain and people on whom pain needs to be inflicted. The basic controls seem to revolve around picking up enemy gang members by the throat, and then carrying out a host of incredibly violent (and darkly hilarious) fatality moves on them. If you get tired of that, you also helpfully have a chainsaw mounted on your right arm, which you can use to dismember your foes. As a result, the black and white environments quickly get splashed with red, since the only thing in this world that isn't black or white is blood. The visual effect is fantastic, as you'd expect - and when you start racking up the fatality moves, the whole thing rapidly becomes a lather of blood and over-the-top violence. This isn't so much Hostel and Saw as Arnie and Sly, however. Moves we spotted included ramming enemies onto spikes, or ripping up signposts and shoving them through their heads - all played for laughs in the most cartoonish manner possible. Thoughts of a moral panic weren't far from the heads of anyone who saw the game - but like No More Heroes before it, we suspect that MadWorld will escape the mad googly eyes of the tabloid press simply because it's too ridiculous, too over-the-top and too cartoonish for them to notice. The whole tone of the game, in fact, is easily summed up by an odd mini-game which our anti-hero, Jack, encountered towards the end of Nishikawa's demo (unlike everything else, MadWorld was actually shown in full working form, not just as a video). Called "Man Darts" (which should be enough to make you pre-order the game straight away, really), it saw Jack swinging an increasingly bloodied club in order to fling gang members head-first into the face of a giant dartboard - with the requisite crowd cheers and Bullseye scoring noises. Brilliant. As with all the others, no release date for MadWorld was forthcoming, but the code Nishikawa demonstrated seemed very stable and pretty complete. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one - fun, exciting, and gruesome are three of our favourite adjectives, after all.

I think Wii is most likely. Raving Rabbits did well on the system. RR2 was exclusive... They can reuse the old engine with some improvements.

Most Wii owners probably don't know it has an online service at all. A survey showed that only 30% of people who bought a PS3 knew it had a blu-ray player...

I agree about using flash memory as storage for Wii 2. Remember that you don't need rewritable SSDs, so they can be made considerably cheaper than your average SD memory card.

WW2, pacific assault... Kotaku: "Sources tell us that the upcoming Call of Duty 5 game in development is already playable, and currently going through quality assurance. Treyarch is also said to be the developer, and the title, we're told, is set in a WWII Pacific environment and will be using Call of Duty 4's engine, the same engine on which the upcoming James Bond: Quantum of Solace movie game is being built."

Just confirmed for Wii release: http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6190641.html Sadly they're also making a PS2 version...

1up with A+ rating! http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3167698&p=44 A decent 8.1 @ IGN as well: http://wii.ign.com/articles/872/872031p1.html

Ah, forgot Kirby Wii. That has even been announced.

I was really tired of his Kid Icarus speculations as well (and his love for a game that was not THAT good, at least not in Metroid/Mario/Zelda territory), but with Pit as a playable character in Brawl and the Nintendo Power teaser there are clear signs something is happening.

Mature zelda turned out to be true.

A bit early for a new Mario game, isn't it? Considering it was over 5 years between Sunshine and Galaxy, I don't think we'll se another Mario game until very late in Wii's life time or as a launch game for Wii 2 (or whatever it's called). A Zelda trailer is more likely. 40 GB hard drive. Probably very expensive though. £80-100. New Pilotwings or Starfox made by Factor 5. 1080 Snowboarding with balance board for winter 2009 release seems likely.

Definitely Kid Icarus.

Shenmue/Shenmue II Chrono Trigger Max Payne 1/2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Metal Gear Solid 1/2

Ah, this is Wii in a nutshell... Might be fun, but any gamer would choose a Rayman 2-quality platformer over this any day...

Ok, lets look at the status of the different Ninty developers: Retro: Finished Metroid 3 last summer. Will probably show of a new IP this year. Will be delayed three times and released in 2010. Intelligent Systems: Super Paper Mario was their last Wii game and AW: Days of Ruin for DS was released in January. Working on Fire Emblem DS for Q4 release. Probably not working on a Wii game for release this year, or maybe a small one like WarioWare 2. Monolith Soft: Disaster: Day of Crisis is probably finished. I think I read somewhere that Nintendo would find the right time to release it (probably in off-season, summer maybe). Probably working on a new RPG franchise for Wii for late 2009 announced later this year. Nintendo EAD1: Just finished Mario Kart Wii. Won't have time to show anything new this year. Nintendo EAD2: Working on Animal Crossing Wii. Proably due in Q4, at least in Japan. Nintendo EAD3: The Zelda team. Has probably started working on a new Zelda for Wii after PH and Crossbow Training. I think we'll see the first glimpse of it at E3, but not released this year. Nintendo EAD4: The 2D Mario team. My guess is that they're working on New Super Mario Bros. 2. Nintendo EAD5: Wii Fit team. Surely working on new (mini)games utilizing the balance board. EAD Software Group Tokyo: Folks behind Galaxy. Probably won't show anything new this year. They made DK Jungle Beat as well, so maybe a Donkey Kong platformer from the guys behind Galaxy... NST: The American team behind Metroid Prime: Hunters. Project HAMMER was cancelled, so their probably working on a new Wii game. Maybe they're using their online FPS experience on something... Or maybe a new 1080 Snowboarding or Wave Race... HAL: Working on Kirby Wii. Genius Sonority: Guys behind GC/Wii Pokémon games. Probably working on a new Wii Pokémon game. Sora: Just finished Smash. Won't hear from them in a long time.

I think there will be a €50/£30 Wii price cut a few weeks after Smash Bros. Brawl.

Maybe Wii will be the most expensive console in a few months...

I think this years E3 will be very exciting compared to last year where only Wii Fit was the big news. The big 3 we've known about since 2005 (Metroid/Smash/Galaxy) is finally out (at least in Japan and US) and we're getting Fit and Mario Kart this April, so all the big games will be out prior to E3. My expectations: Zelda Wii trailer shown. It will be different, probably an easier, more accessible type of game with innovative use of the Wiimote. Think Zelda: Phantom Hourglass... Retro shows of a new IP. A sci-fi action TPS/FPS with online multiplayer using Metroid Prime 3 engine. New Starfox or Pilotwings game made by Factor 5. Animal Crossing Wii will probably be the big Xmas 2008 game. Will be similar to the DS game. Pay-and-play online. Wii Music. Microphone announced as well. F-Zero Wii being made by inhouse. A game pack with 5-10 minigames (think Wii Play) to be used with the Balance Board. HAL shows off Kirby Wii, platformer of the year.

This was pretty much given with the surprisingly early Mario Kart and Wii Fit dates. Late August or September is my guess. Just like last year. We got Mario Strikers to cover up for the long Super Paper Mario delay...